IndiaPost aims to open 50 branches of payments bank by May next year

India’s government-operated postal system IndiaPost has planned to start the first 50 branches of its payments bank, called India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), by May next year, with a motive to widen financial inclusion in the country.

Eventually, it plans to have 650 branches across the country by September next year, a top official of the Department of Posts told ET.

A final proposal will be deposited to the RBI by February 2017, as the central bank had given a deadline of March 2017, and in the meantime, the required management and technology would be brought into place, said SK Sinha, secretary, Department of Posts, told ET.

Department of Posts was one of the 11 applicants that were given the RBI approval to open payments bank, out of which three backed out. The remaining entities are Aditya Birla Nuvo, Airtel M Commerce Services, Fino PayTech, National Securities Depository, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra and Vodafone m-pesa.

For IPPB, IndiaPost will hire almost 2,000 people across 155,000 post offices.

"There will be nine board members, five from outside and four internal people from the department, including the CEO," said Sinha.

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